How Do You Mortise?

This week I have gotten little time in the shop. During the week that’s understandable because of my return to Popular Woodworking Magazine (PWM). But Saturdays I generally get six to eight straight hours woodworking – except for a lunch break for wings and a beverage at local eatery. However, this weekend I am teaching a class at the Dayton, Oh., area Woodcraft; the class is building a splay-legged end table.

In the class after we discussed how to taper legs at the jointer – no it’s not multiple passes made using a stop block (see the process here in a short video I made while at PWM) – we went over a couple ways to cut mortises. Of the six guys in the class, three chose to use a benchtop mortise machine and three elected to router-cut their mortises. (It didn’t surprise me that no one attending my class would decide to chop mortises by hand.) I was left wondering how you guys cut your mortises.

I’m partial to my floor-model mortise machine. I would recommend that machine to woodworkers that plan to use mortise-and-tenon joinery in most of their projects, if that is, you have the funds necessary and are interested in spending a sizable chunk for one machine. But if I had to choose between a benchtop machine and my router, I think it would depend on how many mortises I cut annually.

What do you think? How do you cut mortises for your furniture projects? Leave a comment to let me know.

10 thoughts on “How Do You Mortise?”

I use a bench top mortiser, modified with a cross sliding vise to hold the work. The micro adjustments possible with the vise make for very precise placement. I also have a foot powered 1876 mortiser but its footprint is big so I keep that at a local museum for demonstrations.

Hi Glen:
I use my bench top square chisel mortiser. Since it is an older model, I have set it up with “in-line” skate wheel to keep the material against the fence. Works great and does not hinder moving the material along as need for the next “chop.”

By the way, Glen, (re: 18th Cent. New England Secretary project) Rockler no longer handles the “Prospect Box” lock set. What do you suggest? I ordered everything else as per your list in the book and am expecting it to arrive shortly.

Hi Glen, I use a Powermatic bench top model 701 (a great unit but heavy) and I also use a Bill Hylton designed jig for loose tenon joinery that I made out of maple and adjusted the design to fit my router. This jig works great for mortises.